Volumes & Outcomes
Volumes and outcomes are important considerations when choosing a hospital for your child's care.
Volumes tell how many procedures a hospital has performed, so it is a good indication of healthcare experience.
Outcomes is also an important measure that combines various factors to evaluate the clinical success of a hospital's healthcare practices. In fact, the two are closely related: numerous research studies have demonstrated that larger volumes generally lead to better outcomes.
That's why parents and families often consider volumes and outcomes among their primary concerns when choosing a healthcare provider.
By the numbers
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The Division of Cardiology includes 29 cardiologists with depth of expertise from fetal medicine to adult congenital heart disease. The Division of Cardiovascular surgery includes two board-certified surgeons who operate at both Children's Memorial and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
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Our Fetal/Neonatal cardiologists perform more than 900 fetal echocardiograms annually at multiple sites in the Chicago area. We also provide prenatal counseling to families expecting a baby who will be born with a congenital heart defect.
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Each year, our cardiologists see more than 10,000 infants, children and young adults with cardiac complaints in outpatient diagnostic visits. We see patients at more than 15 sites in the region, several of which offer tele-echocardiography.
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Approximately 15,000 minimally invasive diagnostic cardiac imaging studies — echocardiography, magnetic resonance and computed tomography (CT) — are performed annually at our main hospital and several suburban outpatient centers.
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Each year we perform more than 500 cardiac catheterizations, including interventional procedures like angioplasty, septal defect closure and device placement. Children's Memorial is an approved center for pediatric percutaneous pulmonary valve insertion.
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We are nationally and internationally renowned for the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias — in the catheterization/electrophysiology laboratory and, when necessary, in the operating room where arrhythmia surgery is integrated with repair of congenital heart defects.
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Each year we perform an average of
400 open and closed heart surgeries, providing expert care for all congenital cardiac conditions. Our outcomes for patients undergoing congenital cardiac surgery are significantly better than the national average over a four-year period (2007-2010), based on data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (Figure 1).
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Since completing our first pediatric heart transplant in 1988, we have performed
174 cardiac transplants, including the first newborn transplant in Illinois — more than any other healthcare provider in Illinois (Figure 2). At more than
95 percent, our first-year survival rate for heart transplant patients exceeds the national average. Our long-term survival rates are also exceptional.
- We have many significant historic contributions to the understanding and treatment of children with vascular rings, including:
- 502 patients in 63 years, the largest reported series in North America
- First PA sling repair in 1953
- First pericardial tracheoplasty in 1982
- First tracheal autograft in 1996
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